It's not Yellow Journalism. It's not Muckraking. It's not Jingoism. There probably isn't a name for the type of journalism which the Windsor Star is scribing these days. It has more to do with what they choose NOT to tell their readers. You know..."Keep them eating cake". What are we talking about here? Well...If you didn't watch any TV news this weekend or read the Detroit Free Press, see it on the internet or listen to the radio then you missed the news anyway. That's OK with the Windsor Star though because the news they don't want you to know about doesn't fit with their political sponsorship or with their newly found revenue stream. Enough already! Whats going on here? Well...If you read the news you know right? NOT!!!
The news which this blog and others are referring to is the deadly California tunnel crash which took place in the wee hours of Saturday Morning. 27 vehicles slammed into each other inside a 600 meter highway tunnel killing three people (one of them an infant) and burning and injuring scores of others. Fire raged inside of that tunnel for several hours and lingered for 24 more. Huge flames and acrid smoke were seen coming from both ends of the tunnel. The fire burned at 1400 degrees causing sections of cement to explode off of the structure and it melted steel support structures on the upper deck. Tragedy aside, most of that highway sector is closed down until authorities can remove the charred piles of melted car and truck frames and make their assessment as to wether or not the tunnel is safe for further use without collapsing. Watch here:
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=msnbc&showPlaylist=true&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:b55fa02b-b490-46f9-8f8c-1f113df7c991
The Windsor Star made no mention of Friday Evening's crash in Saturday's paper and we were watching to see how they would handle it in todays edition. If you were paying attention this morning you know that they put a mere picture and caption of it on the back page of the classified section. Monday's classified section! Who reads that?
Why did the Star choose not to publish this? Because it would burst their pie in the sky balloon which is the current "Greenlink" proposal. A good proposal but a lot of tunneling which just might not be the best thing since sliced bread. Chriss Schnurr, in his blog, argues that we should sit back and check through the details before we sign on to such a committment. He suggests that we make sure that all bases are covered such as air quality in the tunnel, maintenance costs to run the tunnel, safety and so on.
The Windsor Star is obviously meddling in this. They deliberately chose not to report on the California tragedy because that would interfere with Greenlink which is the proposal promoted by our current City Council with the help of Gridlock Sam (at a cost to us of almost $2 million to date) and backed by the Windsor Star. Think of the advertising revenue they are also getting from this. The city is paying over $15,000.00 a pop for each full page add they run in the Star. We readers are paying for the sizzle which they are selling to us! Let's face it. The California tunnel tragedy will just get in the way of all of this. It's not good news so we, the citizens, don't need to know about it. Armed with that information we'll just get in the way.
Hopefully, if readers decide to attend one of these open houses they will keep an open and objective mind and ask all of the right questions. The Windsor Star is bound to be there to put as much sugar coating on this as possible so why not ask THEM some simple questions: Why is the Windsor Star keeping the news from it's readers? Does the Windsor Star think it's necessary to control our news diet? Why should we believe the Star any more? Let's see if the Windsor Star can reign in it's gremlins.
OPEN HOUSES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
Ward 1: Today at Massey Secondary School
Ward 4: Tuesday at Gino A. Marcus Community Complex- Drouillard
Ward 3: Wednesday at Willistead Manor
Ward 2: Thursday at Mackenzie Hall
Ward 5: Friday at Forest Glade Community Center
34 comments:
You are right on the money. I just checked the Saturday Star and Monday's. Nothing. Can you believe it?
A blackout imposed by our only news provider. Big brother is looking after us after all.
The devil is in the details. It all comes together doesn't it. A favour from the editor.
Considering that the Windsor Star is a local newspaper, I think it makes more sense to have local issues and events in the front pages. Unless some catastrophic (ie: 9/11) or world-changing I don't think it should make the front pages.
**or world-changing occurs
To anonymous:
It was a catastrophic event don't you think? Other papers covered it in a varirty of ways throughout the weekend. All of them included some printed news with and none of them buried it in the bowels of the paper. The Windsor Star put this small bit in only once and on the third day. Guilty as charged!
Now we have Gordon Orr, head of tourism for Windsor/Essex doing it. Maybe he should put the phone down and do his job considering how awful our tourism is lately.
The tunnel crash was given poor coverage by Canadian media everywhere, including London and Toronto. This was not some kind of 'plot' at the Windsor Star.
Maybe not a plot but certainly with all the hype about "tunneling" in Windsor you'd think that someone at the Star might pick up on it. I mean think about it... we are talking deaths that occurred on the weekend in a tunnel... and the City just releases its option to tunnel... and this is not relevant to the citizens that subscribe to the Windsor Star.
Also how often to you see negative articles about EF in the paper. Almost never. Why??? Just look no further that out his office door.
I say we flush our papers down the drain next time.
I am glad that we still have a local newspaper - congrats to The Windsor Star for staying local and for staying at all! It will be sad if one day we don't even have a newspaper! We no longer have Kresge's Dept. Store or Boblo Island Theme Park... and all the green space on the east end near Jarvis is now a subdivision - but at least we have The Windsor Star.
To anonymous last,
Your Windsor Star fetish is OK I guess if you are an advocate of "NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS"
Not to mention the removal of 33 part-time employees. After that, I cancelled my subscription and now do not buy The Star at all. I have also had 4 other people cancel their paper as well.
If The Star is going to skirt issues and cheerlead Eddie to no end (just as the biggest cheerleader of them all, Gord Henderson)I cannot and will not support a "local" paper.
Maybe we should admit having biased news outlets a failed utilities and a failed city as a starting point for realistic future planning.
To Dave, last - You cancelled your paper because of the part-time Customer Service Reps losing their jobs?? Are you trying to cause even more Star employees to lose their jobs? 33 isn't enough for you? And you encouraged 4 other people to cancel their Star as well? And you wonder why the Star is having to cut back on employees?? I for one, like the good old fashioned print-copy newspaper being delivered to my door 6 mornings a week. Other than Canada Post, there are not many door-to-door services anymore. When I was a child in the sixties the milk man came right into our house and left the milk on the step into our kitchen, and the bread man did the same! I am very nostalgic for these lost services and hope that The Windsor Star - print copy - is able to survive the times. As Joni Mitchell brilliantly wrote "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." I encourage you to support our local newspaper - you don't have to agree with everything printed (or not printed) - but at least appreciate the fact that it is printed!!
On the subject of Kresges...How about those meat pies! And who doesn't want their food delivered up and down in a dumb waiter?
The 1960's were great downtown. Unfortunately Windsor's a little different in 2007.
There's still plenty of dumb waiters in Windsor.
This is also to Dave, last - I'm sure your intentions were good, but I agree with the comments made by Anonymous in favour of our paper. Cuts are usually made because revenues are not what they once were, hence the layoffs. Cancelling your subscription and advising those around you to follow suite are just more nails in the coffin. Congratulations to you for ensuring the demise of our local newspaper! And to all those miserable souls (and just the regular folk as well) reading this, Windsor is going through tough times enough as it is without the negative feedback and blame-game-free-for-all witnessed on this blog alone. Maybe instead of micro-focussing on slagging the local paper, people should do something more productive to bring something good to everyone’s attention in regards to our lovely city.
Let us not forget that the couple who began the revamping of Monmouth Road were Windsor Star employees - the late Jan McLeod and her husband Phil McLeod (now of Partners Design). Because they worked at The Star, and were therefore very well respected in the community, they were instrumental in raising Monmouth Road's status level in this city. Before they renovated that first house on the 800 block - the house Phil had grown up in - Monmouth Road was not nearly so well respected.
To the last 2 posts (in support of the Star, and respectful of the Star): Yes! Well said! Let's let this blog be something positive - not a hate fest!
The Star's current circulation is higher than it ever has been. I'll give you the fact that they are only a messenger (so why shoot them) but in this instance they clearly abused their editorial power. The heavy dialogue we are having here is indicative of that. So the argument should go forward.
I doubt that any recent layoffs touched any of the usual news contributors but probably did affect the production department. Automation tends to do that. Lets not forget that the written word is brought to you by journalists. The printed word is brought to you by a printing press. Very soon we'll all be reading this paper on our computers and TVs. It's the green thing to do. Forward.
Actually, the layoffs only affected the Customer Service Reps. Production and the rest of the Windsor Star were not touched. Also, some of the staff were saved in the end with the opportunity to apply for a newly restructured positions.
To "Not So Nostalgic": The printed word is brought to us not only by the printing presses, but also those who operate the presses, those who drop the papers in bundles on the street corners, and those who deliver them door-to-door. Also, I didn't get the impression that "Dave" and his 4 co-horts cancelled their papers because they feel that it is the "green" thing to do - I got the impression rather that Dave is boycotting our local paper altogether. - Sign me "Nostalgic"
Why are we doing the "poor Windsor Star" thing here?
This posting wasn't about people losing jobs or people cancelling their subscription. It is about editorial licence - period.
By NOT covering the "Tunnel" story they were being very subjective and manipulative. Bottom line.
Meat Pie: Has it occurred to you that it wasn't intentional at all? How dare you say that "By NOT covering the "Tunnel" story they were being very subjective and manipulative. Bottom line." Do you work in the editorial department at The Star? If not, then how can you profess to be an expert on what The Star does or does not report on? Besides, I think they did cover it, did they not? I thought I read about it - perhaps on Wednesday - not sure exactly when.
It was on page C8 of the Monday Windsor Star (October 15, 2007), back of the section so was actually very noticeable. Headline was "TUNNEL COLLISION SPARKS DEADLY BLAZE". It was accompanied by a large colour photo - I don't know how you all could have missed it!! Unless of course, you are boycotting the Windsor Star and don't realize that the FREE online version is not comprehensive since it is free! Therefore, in the future, before you start blasting The Windsor Star for lack of coverage pertaining to a certain event, perpaps you should actually purchase a newspaper and do your research! - Nostalgic
The Conspiracy - The Windsor star didn't immediately cover the tunnel accident in California because the city and Star want the Greenlink and tunneling.A towering inferno crash will happen everyday in Windsor if the project goes through is the theory's scare tactic. What should we do to prevent accidents and truck pollution. Turn off the trucks, harness unemployed Windsorites to them and haul them down a trail to the outskirts of town?
OT - Why does the blog take forever to loadup. Anyone else find this annoying?
To anoymous...The blog post already stated that the picture was on the back of the classified section on Monday. 3 days after the fact and with nothing more than a caption and blurb. Three days too late. Also...It's not about scare tactics but rather about important considerations for the build of such projects. Keep in mind that there WILL be accidents in those tunnels. Hopefully those will only delay commerce. As for pollution, it's going to be more concentrated and localized with tunnels than it would were it to be dissipated into the weather system. But this blog was about the Star was it not?
To Jaw Lock: The blog post did NOT mention at all that there had been a large colour photo of the fiery crash - only that "The Windsor Star put this small bit in only once and on the third day." You say that it was 3 days too late - the Star doesn't even publish a paper on Sundays so I am not sure about your math. The Monday paper this week was feather-light - very small - so relativley speaking the reporting of the crash stood out quite a bit. There are a couple of people on the 800 block of Monmouth who work at the Star - the Publisher's sister is one of them - so I am not sure why you are surprized that there wouldn't be some blog-backlash when The Windsor Star comes under attack on The Mayor of Monmouth site!
- Nostalgic
To "Nostalgic":
Here is a direct quote from the blog:
"If you were paying attention this morning you know that they put a mere picture and caption of it on the back page of the classified section. Monday's classified section! Who reads that?"
I'll give you credit. The Windsor Star does not publish on Sundays. I also don't get the connection to the publisher's sister and Monmouth Road. Is that relevant in some way? P.S...You owe jaw lock an apology.
I just read your blog for the first time and I think this proves just what I've always thought... thanks to the internet and sites like this, anyone can say anything. It could be correct or it could be wrong. Thanks to Managing Editors and teams of Editors at newspapers around the world what we read in newspapers is researched and correct. This includes The Windsor Star. I’m sure each day the news team at The Star needs to consider what should go in the paper what should not. Given news from all over the world I bet it would be a tough job. And then they have to sell “adds” (which should be ads) to make a profit and then sell the newspaper to get the correct information into the hands of those who really care about accurate new coverage. But thanks to the internet every dog will have his/her day and are able to spread whatever BS they wish to spread. With TV and major internet news sources world news is covered to death, so I agree with whichever blogger it was that said that The Star should cover local news. It’s what they do better than anyone else and it’s worth paying for.
To the last anonymous:
I think we all agree on two things: That the Windsor Star serves a vital and necessary function in the city of Windsor and that editorial seletion is very important. Let's not lose sight that every paper has an editorial slant. Some topics provoke editorial licence too.
You are obviously not a big fan of world news. Personally I am and like more detail which only a newspaper can provide. I read at least three papers daily. The purpose of blogs as I see it is not to bring you the news but to comment on it. You and I and 37 others have also had the opportunity to offer our two cents as well. The paper...by way of practicality and editorial selection will only allow a limited amount of "letters to the editor" per edition and at that, topics are screened as well. Nothing portrayed in this blog posting is innacurate. I think we are all commenting on the authors inference that editorial choices were at best questionable.
We all know how to separate the wheat from the chaff so the B.S. factor which you describe really has no merit. All of us obviously found this article intriguing enough to warrant healthy debate otherwise we would just ignore the blog. A lot like threatening to cancel the Star whenever we are upset with it's content.
As for the message in this particular blog posting I think it brings some insight. Something which made us all think.
In the middle of this debate the Windsor Star has done it again. Did not report about a very important event. Last week an Auditor was chosen for the WUC water rate hike fiasco, terms of reference were announced by the ministry and the cost. All $157,000.00 of it. I guess the Windsor Star doesn't find this newsworthy either. Whats wrong here?
Funny. The Sar is all over the California forest fires.
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=c5db1fb8-b206-4d65-83e3-6d69b303185d&k=35336
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